A New Generation Of Automobile Buyer Goes To The Lots

March 5, 1986|By Dick Marlowe of the Sentinel Staff

While American consumers have been paying very close attention to changes in the ways cars are being manufactured, the auto industry has been going through a more fascinating transformation -- the way in which cars are marketed and sold.

And if Robert Rewey is accurate in his forecast for the industry worldwide, you haven't seen anything yet.

If you happen to be a baby boomer, let me tell you a story. There was a time not so long ago when a prospective car buyer could go into a local dealership and order a car that was practically custom-made. The buyer not only could choose the color, seat covers and trim but also could ask the dealer to hold the air conditioning, heater, electric windows and sun roof. The price paid for all that glory was having to wait, sometimes for as long as six weeks, for the model to arrive. But when it was delivered, the vehicle was exactly what was specified -- and with no tricks on the price tag.

Rewey, the 47-year-old vice president of Ford Motor Co. and general manager of its Ford Division, said there was a time when the Ford Thunderbird alone came in 1,600 different combinations of color, trim and other options.

When Japanese imports began making serious inroads into the American marketplace, Ford found that it no longer could provide those customized services -- particularly when 50 to 100 of those T-bird combinations accounted for 90 percent of the sales. ''No,'' Rewey concedes, ''you can't order a car a la carte as you used to, but -- if we do our homework right -- it will work to the advantage of the consumer.''

Cars can be made less expensively and with better quality, Rewey contends, if manufacturers concentrate on more standardized models. ''We have studied the way in which Americans have been buying cars,'' he said, ''and that has led to the grouping and packaging of options.''

You may have noticed that some ads no longer carry the price of the car but just the monthly payment and the APR -- the annual percentage rate of interest, which apparently has bypassed sticker price as a bargaining tool.

Rewey, in Orlando to meet with Ford dealers in the area, said that Ford ''would rather not be in these interest-rate wars.'' But Ford will hang in there, he said, as long as the competition is offering special financing programs. Young buyers, Rewey said, are more receptive to today's sales and marketing conditions than are older buyers.

With payments already stretching out to 60 months, Rewey said, he believes car leasing eventually will surpass outright sales. He noted that many owners already buy cars on a five-year payment plan -- knowing full well that they will trade them in before they are paid for. He expects that, in the not-too-distant future, many people ''will never really own the car they drive.''

Instead of buying a car, getting it paid for and then making it do for several years as their parents did, Rewey said, younger buyers have an entirely different idea about car ownership. Leasing a car rather than owning it, he contends, gives the buyer more ''freedom'' to change cars when he or she feels like it -- rather than when need dictates it.

Leasing will gain popularity with younger people, he said, because ''it puts them in a stronger position with the agency where they got it.'' For example, he said, dealers or leasing agencies not only will mend the leased vehicle but also will lend the driver another car while repairs are being made.

There is no doubt that times are changing. Contrary to the popular belief fostered largely through modern advertising, it is still quite possible to be a worthwhile human being and drive a 5-year-old car that is paid for.